An applicant who had completed a WES educational credential assessment (for a not-yet-opened Express Entry profile) asked whether they could hide their existing master's degree and apply for a master's program in Canada. The thread shut the idea down with a technical fact most applicants don't know:
- WES already sent your ECA to IRCC. The decisive answer: check your WES account under the Delivery option — WES transmits an electronic copy of your assessment to IRCC the same day it sends your documents. IRCC therefore already has a record of every credential you had assessed, including the master's. Hiding it on a subsequent application isn't just risky, it's mechanically impossible to hide.
- The mismatch would be misrepresentation. If your study permit application omits a degree IRCC can see in the WES transmission, that's a discoverable inconsistency — the kind that leads to refusal and potential misrepresentation findings (with a multi-year ban), far worse than any awkwardness about applying for a second master's.
- The better path: disclose and justify. Applying for a second master's is done successfully all the time — the file just needs a statement of purpose explaining the academic or career logic (different specialization, career pivot, Canadian labour-market alignment) rather than a hidden credential.